› added 9 years ago

50

TIL that soon after his presidency, William Howard Taft lost 80 pounds and explored Alaska.

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kOeLd TIL that only 6.6% of the Hawaiian population is made up of native Hawaiians. (based on 2000 census)
XyNR TIL that a man flew three times on the Space Shuttle without being an astronaut. Charles Walker got turned down by NASA but found a space-related job at McDonnell Douglas. McDonnell Douglas paid NASA $40,000 per flight for Walker to operate its experiments on the shuttle as a payload specialist.
nZbW TIL of a homeless man in NYC who would regularly order an expensive dinner at a restaurant and refuse to pay for it in order to be sent to prison where he would receive 3 meals a day and a clean bed. He refused to commit more serious crimes to get longer sentences as he did not want to hurt anyone.
J11b8 TIL that in the 1950’s Dr. Curt Richter conducted a series of tests with rats in which the first set drowned in water after 15min. But the next set were dried off and placed back in the water and remained alive and swimming for up to 60hrs. Showing that idea of “hope” can keep them alive longer.
gZ9b TIL in ancient Persia, engineers built a type of evaporative cooler that could store ice, even in the middle of summer. It is called a Yakhchal.